Misanthropy

Misanthropy is generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from Greek words μῖσος (misos, "hatred") and ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos, "man, human being"). In Western philosophy, misanthropy has been connected to isolation from human society. In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: "Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable...and when it happens to someone often...he ends up...hating everyone."^[1] Misanthropy, then, is presented as the result of thwarted expectations or even excessively naive optimism, since Plato argues that "art" would have allowed the potential misanthrope to recognize that the majority of men are to be found in between good and evil.^[2] Aristotle follows a more ontological route: the misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god, a view reflected in the Renaissance of misanthropy as a "beast-like state."^[3]

[edit] Misanthropy and furry

There is a sizeable amount of misanthropes within the furry fandom, possibly due to its celebration of animals, and common use of humans as an oppressing, evil force. However, not all furries feel this way.

[edit] References

1. ↑ Stern, Paul (1993). Socratic rationalism and political philosophy: an interpretation of Plato's Phaedo. SUNY Press, 94. ISBN 9780791415733. 
2. ↑ Stern 95.
3. ↑ Jowett, John (2004). The Oxford Shakespeare: The life of Timon of Athens. Oxford UP, 29. ISBN 9780192814975. 

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